Stolen Bliss  Morganville Vampires
by Skeletone
Summary: Myrnin and Claire, what have they managed to get themselves into now? *Story continued after Ghost Town, contains spoilers*
1. Chapter 1

**MVMC** - A Morganville Vampire Fan Fic

* * *

Waking up shouldn't have been this hard. Claire stretched out her arms far and wide, meeting a fistful of crumpled up Shane beside her. He slept entirely wrong with his neck lying awkwardly in the crook of her arm. She thought it was funny because if she could remember correctly, she was the one who'd fallen asleep in his arms. Still, he looked so adorable that she decided it wasn't worth waking him up for. And, okay, maybe she might enjoy giving him a little message later.

That wasn't all she wouldn't wake him up for. Ever since the things that happened to Frank Collins, his dad, it had become harder and harder to catch him in a good mood at all. At least while his eyes were closed you couldn't spot that far away look in his eyes that burned with guilt and regret. This way he looked almost peaceful. That wasn't the only reason it was becoming harder to look at him these days. Claire had some guilt of her own. It wasn't really her burden to carry but she was good at carrying other people's burdens, and who else was there to carry all of Myrnin's? He was kind of like Morganville's adopted child gone horribly wrong.

He was mad, completely mad, and recently he had tried to turn the town back several years while erasing everyone's memory and living in a fairytale where his precious love Ada-who was killed and had her brain imported into a machine by guess who-was still alive. He was also a genius, but the fact that he was a genius was his ultimate downfall. He believed that science could fix everything, and it just couldn't.

It sure couldn't fix the horrible chasm in Claire's chest when she thought of how Frank Collins gave his life to give everyone their memory back. Shane felt the weight of his past decisions to basically give his father the cold shoulder after years of him running for Worst Father Of The Year now, because he knew that his father couldn't have been _that_ bad if he was willing to give up his life like that.

Except that he was still alive.

Oh, you know, your typical brain in jar procedure. Never heard of it? It's just when your mad scientist of a boss decides the only way to keep a town full of rabid vampires safely hidden from the rest of society, is to kill someone and import their brain into the basis of a machine. Following along? I guess the only thing he didn't do was kill someone, and rightfully, that made him a few more steps ahead of his dark past. But still, Shane's belated father?

Claire didn't want to think about it. It was making her sick all over again, and it was bad enough she would have to snarfle down some sort of food after her shower. She hardly ever visited the lab these days, because, well, Morganville was fixed. She also couldn't stand hearing Frank's voice alien and foreign coming out of any electronic device with a speaker. It just reminded her that this whole town was wrong. Forget that people had to wear a bracelet just so that they wouldn't be sucked dry with a straw. Now her boyfriend's undead father was controlling everything in the town, and she was one of the "lucky" select few who knew about it.

The steam in the bathroom made a sort of shelter for her mental frustration, but she knew as soon as those doors opened and the cool hair punched reality in her face she would be humming a different tune. It was five in the morning because when did Myrnin ever call at an appropriate time? And it was always the calls where she got two words in and nothing made sense. The only thing that made sense was that she had to "come here now".

The cereal she ate over the sink tasted a little too chewy. She wondered if the little marshmallows sprinkled about had a separate expiration date than the actual cereal. They hadn't gone grocery shopping in what seemed like months. Mostly everyone just ate a bunch of barbecue from Shane's job or Chili, and they had a bunch of left over cans that would last a century. There was a time where it was fun for them to cook things out of the norm like tacos or spaghetti, but that ship sailed when all of the unease floating around made everyone lose their appetites.

At least the rest of Morganville seemed okay, Claire noted. The people of Morganville were resilient like toddlers. They knew how to bounce back from a tragic event almost as if it never took place to begin with. It's not like the events weren't taking their tolls, because you could see it in every single person's eyes. Some were a little too shallow and drowned, some were a little too wide and alert, but everyone walked the same. They walked with acceptance and somehow that was considered okay.

The walk to Myrnin's lab seemed especially short this time. It could have been because she couldn't feel her legs for the entire walk there. For some reason, it was particularly chilly, and she'd chosen to wear shorts just because it was the first thing she grabbed. The sun was coming up in pretty sparks of oranges and blues coming to life. She might have enjoyed it if she were heading to a place like say, back in bed with Shane.

Shane.

Just the thought of him made her heart ache in all kinds of crazy.

She entered Myrnin's lab in a daze, literally. Smoke seemed to fill the entire place and she heard a faint coughing.

"Uhm, Myrnin?" She felt around to the first crowded table and dropped her backpack on the floor next to it. Something fell and shattered and in the next moment, Myrnin called "Just a minute!" in a sing song voice. It almost reminded her of a house wife calling her family for dinner.

"Why is it so smoky in here? We really don't have enough ventilation for this." Just as she felt like she was talking to a thin space of air Myrnin popped up beside her with what looked like a prehistoric fan.

"But you see, Claire, my plan is working."

Eyebrow raised, she studied him. "What plan, exactly?"

He was using the fan to wave smoke in every direction which burned her eyes and made her go into another coughing fit.

"Did you not leave the door open on purpose? Foolish. Claire. There's our ventilation."

"Oh, well, no that was an accident."

Myrnin looked at her with a bored smirk, if a smirk could ever look bored. "Any one person would have claimed to have purpose, but you chose the honest bout. You never cease to surprise me."

Claire's cheeks felt hot almost instantly. "Yeah, yeah, you didn't answer my question. What "plan"?"

"I am renovating this lab, it's far too messy." Like that wasn't already obvious, Claire thought, and looked beyond the clearing smoke to see that everything was still pretty much in place.

"I'm missing the improvement here. It looks worse if that's possible."

"Ah, we're starting from the inside out, that's why. This smoke is simply from all of the things that caught on fire. Now, would you go close that door, Claire. I can breathe."

She couldn't but that didn't matter. Instead of protesting she scrambled to shut the door and caught up to Myrnin who was hovering over the trapped door. She looked down it and saw the left over brims of things burning and caught unpleasant wafts of chemicals. "So you burned all of the chemicals?"

Myrnin looked up sharply, amused. "The chemicals burned themselves. You really should have seen it. Everything went up in a glowing glare of colors..." His voice trailed off. Claire could see that his pupils were unusually dilated.

"Uhm, Myrnin, are you...high?"

He laughed, he actually laughed. It had been a while since she heard him laugh in a totally non sarcastic way. Myrnin had a nice laugh, but Myrnin being even a little bit out of character spelt trouble with a capital T.

"Is that what you hellions call it these days? Perhaps, perhaps I do feel "high". This feeling is joyous, it really is."

He was slowly closing the distance between him and her. Claire swallowed hard and braced herself by holding onto one of the tables. "You need to snap out of it. Why did you want me here?"

For a second, it seemed like he did snap out of it. "Good question. I don't remember. Amelie said…Hm, it was something rather important. It slipped my mind when I was bringing the box of beakers down below and then suddenly, it was falling from my fingers. It was brilliant! I seem to accomplish that more and more these days without trying."

Claire was trying to make sense of what he was trying to say. She felt that he really did have an important message but whatever fumes had been released during his little slip up were messing with his way of thought. It made her tired. She was already getting the severe creeps out of feeling Frank's presence. She wasn't sure if anyone who knew him could just feel it if they stepped into the lab because it was so strong, or that if her being aware of the situation somehow made it seem that way. It didn't matter, because either way she wasn't ever letting Shane step foot in here again.

Momentarily caught up in her own thoughts, she didn't realize Myrnin's advance in contact. He was staring down at Claire with a familiar gleam in his eyes. She couldn't figure out where she'd seen that look before.

Oh, yeah, that was the face he gave her right before he tried to suck her dry.

Immediately she was on high alert and awkwardly reached down for her bag. "Look Mrynin, I have class later on today and I can get a few more hours rest in before then so I'm just going to-"

He was right there, right there in her face. Her backpack fell out of her hands and her whole body grew cold. _Don't panic_. Claire knew that was the bad thing to do. Vampires were like any other predator, if you showed fear, they attacked. She found out this rule applied even moreso to Myrnin than any other vampire who'd ever tried to devour her soul.

"Myrnin," She tried calmly, hiding the shudder in her voice. "Are you sure you're okay?"

His eyes sparkled and danced down towards her neck. Before he replied she saw his ghostly white hand in a flash tracing her collar bone and then wrapping itself around her neck. The weird thing was, he wasn't doing it forcefully. In fact, if she wasn't losing her mind she would have thought he was making a pass at her. Normally, that would have Claire thinking N-A-S-T-A-Y, as Eve would say. But the look in Myrnin's eyes just then had her mind in a much, much darker place.

"I didn't notice how tasteful you look until just now," He said, voice oddly silky. It was like the sound of fire crackling and wood burning in December. It made Claire want to curl up and nap. Her whole entire body went warm in a flash that made her tremble. It could have been fear or...something else.

She didn't have time to guess, because Myrnin's lips were on hers in a matter of seconds. At first, the kiss was awkward. Claire didn't really know what to do with his teeth so close to her neck, but Myrnin's hands seemed to be the only thing interested in her jugular veins, and they were making soft caressing movements used to bring their bodies closer together. And then she realized that it actually felt, well, nice. She didn't really know when the kiss turned from gross to not so gross, she just knew that she was burning and Myrnin's hands were starting to slip...slip...

She pulled away gasping. "Myrnin-" but he kept going. This time, his lips were hard and urgent. Any protest died on her tongue once his wrapped around it and some oddly pleasure filled sound grew in the back of her throat. She realized she wasn't the only one making sounds. Myrnin almost seemed to be growling, pushing her body roughly up against the table. He lifted her up on top of it so fast she became dizzy, and his hands became a death grip around her waists.

Some rational part of her mind said it was wrong, but there was something about the way Myrnin's lips met hers. It fit in a way she couldn't explain and the rush in her veins became a maddening hum of lives she never got to live being in Morganville. Her heart was hammering out of her chest, and she knew that Myrnin could hear. He pulled away this time and brought his lips to her ear. "Not even blood I have stolen right from someone's heart has ever tasted so delicious."

That would have frightened her any other day, but today it made her feel warm and dizzy. She felt his lips tracing her neck and her body mechanically arched and shaped itself almost as if it was screaming out _more_. She could feel his bottom teeth grazing her skin ever so lightly, and all she could think of was how she would let him, she would let him bite her because he felt so good right then in there she could cry.

Just as a hoarse plead rose up in her throat, a violent rouse of static shook the room. Myrnin was quicker, and left Claire's side to yank open her backpack and claw out her cell phone. It crunched between his fingers like nothing but dust.

"I don't like being interrupted, Frank." He said, his tone was like ice. Frank. Frank was interrupting? Frank, and _Shane_, oh god. That was enough for Claire to realize what she'd just done and scrambled down from the table. She was going to come up with something smart about him breaking her cell phone, but truthfully it didn't have anything in comparison to the weight she felt suddenly that held twice as much guilt as she already felt before. She reached down and got her backpack without looking up at Myrnin.

This time he wasn't waiting for her when she stood upright, and she made it almost all the way out to sanity before she heard him.

"Claire," His voice was soft. It was the caring Myrnin voice, the one who had nursed her back to health after spending over 50 hours on her feet. "I need you" was all that he said, before she left out into the chilly morning feeling her heart rip in two.

What had she done?


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the reviews you guys. I didn't expect them to be so good, wow. I'll definitely keep updating. :)**

* * *

What in the world had she done? Claire's cheeks felt like a flair of reds and unnatural purples exploding. Fire was still in her blood but it wasn't any of the fire she felt before. No more desire, just rage. Walking out of Myrnin's lab had been like trying to recover from a terrible hangover, not that Claire usually had the leverage or want to drink, but she could only imagine. And boy was she pissed. Myrnin had taken complete and utter advantage of her. She had wanted him to bite her. Just the thought of it made the taste of coffee on her tongue go sour.

Did vampires have some sort of hypnosis ability? Before Claire moved to Morganville she would have never questioned such a thing, because hello, vampires existing in general, but also because Claire was technical. When things couldn't be proven, couldn't be authentic, she would always question them. Now, living in Morganville, there just wasn't enough time to question everything, and sometimes being utterly oblivious was a good thing. She remembered when she'd first come to Morganville. She knew nothing of the horrors it harbored and didn't live in constant fear of her life. It's funny how things change.

Speaking of things changing, what screw was loose in Myrnin's brain this time? The foam coffee cup in Claire's hands began to take the form of her straining fingers. She'd never wanted to hit something so badly. Myrnin was lying to her. There hadn't been any sort of renovating or chemical high; he just wanted to eat her like he did Ada, but why? He'd gotten so much better. Um, excluding recent events and such, he seemed to realize his mistakes more and more often enough to correct them. Claire was pretty sure he wouldn't try some crazy crap like that again. She thought he wouldn't try to eat another one of his assistants either, not after his first attempt on her, but she was wrong.

Her heart was breaking, just a little. But mostly she felt it sputtering and spitting over Shane. She couldn't hurt him, she really couldn't. Her internal conflict was interrupted by a hideous eruption of laughter behind her.

"Well, _I_ don't have time to chauffeur him around Morganville but I have enough time to teach him a thing or two," Monica Morrell cooed. Claire could practically hear the flicking of her dark hair. "He is exactly my cup of coffee."

The sound of a chair leg scraping across the floor at her table made Claire lift up from her silent suffering.

"Yeah I guess," she heard Jennifer, one of Monica's minions, reply. Her voice sounded a lot more somber than usual. "Oh shit!" She whispered sharply in the next moment. "He's sitting with little miss Buffy."

Claire's eyes had a film of worry and guilt that she had to wipe away before surveying the person who had taken the liberty to sit at her table. When she finally got her vision back she got a nice look at a boy about her age, neck deep in a thick book. His maple hair waved slightly in tune with the air conditioning of Common grounds, and glasses were held firmly in one of his hands. Jeez, he seemed kind of uptight.

Okay, a lot uptight. Was that sweat on his brow too? "Um, hi," Claire said already wiping the clam off of her palms with her jeans. Before she could finish Monica exploded in another bout of laughter.

"Oh, I think you're right Jen. Looks like Claire has a little crush on Theodore." Theodore?

Monica walked over to stand behind the nervous boy, who was gradually starting to look less nervous and more on the edge of insanity. Monica's hands were scoping down his shoulders, examining every stitch in his sweater. "You two have met?"

At any other time Claire would have gotten smart. She could already hear the insult tingling on her lips. No, but I see you have. Are you "hiring" yet another tutor or is he just doing your work for you now because I know how hard it is for you. Eve would approve, but instead she settled for a very dry "No."

Monica's perfectly plucked eyebrows rose. "I'm surprised. You two are like, twins or something." Theodore still hadn't looked up. He looked down right uncomfortable, and for that, Claire felt sorry for him. She'd been there before. When he looked up from his book she saw real terror in his eyes, but she saw something else too. It was something that made her look away quickly. If she was right, he had looked at her with menace. Okay, so that was new. Claire suddenly didn't feel all that comfortable herself.

"Glad to know, Monica, but I was just leaving." She gathered up her backpack that felt like more than the weight of the world, it felt like the whole solar system, and decided to leave behind her cold coffee. She was edging towards the door when the sound of Monica's heels clinking across the floor made her hand ball into a fist. "Wait!" Monica, looking primped and pressed despite her tedious journey two feet across the room in what could only be described as leather on a sewing needle, put a hand on Claire's shoulder for "support".

"Look, it's totally okay that you have a crush on him. I won't tell Shane."

Claire's stomach dropped and fell right to her feet. Was it just her, or could everyone hear it slosh to the ground like that? "Uh, what crush?" Yeah, what crush? Why couldn't she breathe out of her nose anymore? Why did she suddenly feel like confessing about what happened in the lab earlier? Oh god, she couldn't. Just when she was about to flee Monica's lips curled into a ravenous smile, "Theodore, I know that you like him. Look at you blushing."

She was blushing, but that was besides the point. Her heart filled with an almost bitter sweet syrup, one that was laced with the energy to send Monica flying across the room. Instead, she stood there for a few more seconds, and then walked right out of the coffee shop.

For the first time in Claire's whole existence, she was glad Shane wasn't at home. The thought of seeing him smile and touch her so unknowingly and in complete trust of their relationship made her want to cry. She sucked it up though, and took a long and thoughtful shower. She hated Myrnin. She hated him for what he did to Frank, for what he did to her. But most of all, she hated him because of what he was doing to Shane. Yeah, go ahead and take away his peace of mind over his father, and then try to seduce his girlfriend.

Claire didn't bother covering herself up as she escaped the steamy nest of her shower's aftermath. The house was empty, and seemed to breathe in time with her emotional stress. Shane's door was open, which was odd to her. She'd never really thought about it, but his room was always closed, probably because it was never presentable in the first place.

She walked in, patting her wet hair down with a towel, and surveyed its abandoned state. His dresser contained a picture of him and her one morning inside of their secret room. Shane's arm extending towards the camera blocked half of the shot, and she was blurred slightly from moving and giggling beside him. It made her heart ache more than she could stand, so she left his room before she could start the waterworks.

It took Eve and Michael thirty more minutes until they got home, laughing and giggling with one another. Man, did everything have to remind her what she'd done today? Descending the stairs was like meeting an unnerving doom. "Hey guys," her voice came out too small, too shaky, so she cleared her throat. "Hey, guys?"

"Oh, hey Claire, "Michael said, looking gorgeous and positively angelic. "Shane left?"

"Nope, he wasn't here when I came home either." She shrugged. Eve was removing a pot from the cabinets. She smelled it, and made a mock gagging motion. "This pot smells like old chili, gross."

Claire leaned against the wall nearest to the window. "Maybe it's just tired of all of the chili we feed it."

The smell of one of the burners warming embraced the room. "Hey, CB," Eve grinned.

"Hey, Eve."

Michael moved to the refrigerator and grabbed one of his sports bottles. "I'm going to have to agree with Claire, we eat way too much of that stuff. I think I smell like old chili too."

Eve gave a little frustrated sigh and reluctantly put down the can of chili. "Okay so what are we supposed to eat? If your bear of a boyfriend would come home, maybe we could have something other than chili, but still tiring and everlasting in smell." She said, heavy on the sarcasm. Her skull printed tutu and black leggings added just the right touch.

"I'll call him." Claire retrieved Eve's skull bedazzled phone from the table and dialed Shane's number. A replay of Myrnin demolishing her phone into tiny pieces caused her to draw in a strong breath of air. She had to stop torturing herself.

It went straight to voicemail. That was weird, she thought, Shane wasn't that good of an employee to be gracious enough to ever turn off his phone. She tried again. Voicemail.

Worry formed in a tight bubble around her stomach. She swallowed, "I don't know, he isn't answering."

"Maybe the battery died." Michael offered. Eve clunked across the room to stand next to Claire. Her cheery features dropped as soon as she was close enough to read the worry in Claire's eyes.

"Oh my god, Michael you asshole! What if something happened? I'm finding my keys." She took off into the living room, muttering things like "I swear this boy is going to get me killed" in search of her keys.

Michael was up in a flash lending Claire a pair of ears to talk to. "Are you okay? You've been kind of weird since we came home."

Well, great, they could tell she was a nauseous, nervous, guilty, lying cheating sham too? She might as well prepare a full "You may never want to speak to me again" speech right now, because as soon as Shane got a look of her he would force the truth out of her himself, and that wouldn't fair over well. Her head was pounding.

"Yeah I'm fine, just worried."

Eve's voice rang through the house "Found them! If Shane is okay, I call punching him in the ribs."

Michael gave a low chuckle. "I can take care of that for you." Their eyes met and that unmistakable electric currency wiggled and wormed between the two of them. It made Claire feel sick which it hadn't ever done, well, unless she caught them making out in very uncompromising positions. Those images just never quite went away. She shuddered. "Okay you two, cut it out, Jesus. Let's go find Sh—"

The door knob rattled violently, and then the door opened in such a reining fury both Claire and Eve screamed at the top of their lungs. Shane slammed it behind him and marched inside with shoes covered in…_blood_? What in the world.

"What the _fuck._" The three of them said in unison. Shane wouldn't look at either one of them. He was breathing heavily, hair standing up all over his head like he'd just seen a ghost. Claire ran over to him, grabbing his face and trying to get a good look into his eyes.

"Oh my god Shane, what happened?"

He shook her off as if she was nothing more than a delirious homeless person. His fingers were trembling and covered in some sort of black grime, like the kind you get when working on a vehicle. Michael stormed up to him, face twisted in anger.

"What. The. _Hell_. Are you doing, Shane? Answer me!" He hissed. "You scared the living shit out of us."

"Just back off, "Shane muttered, and tried to walk around Michael but Michael stood in front of him again, using his quicker vampire reflexes to outmatch him. Eve had inched over to Claire, and held her hand for comfort. Shane finally looked up. His eyes were ablaze with something horrible. She'd seen it before, but never as intense. His pupils were huge and frightened, but still held enough anger to light up the sun.

"I said BACK OFF!" He shouted, and shoved Michael so hard he fell into the table. You could visibly see Michael's muscles tensing and his legs getting ready to spring out and attack Shane, but before he could Shane wobbled on his feet. Claire and Eve automatically started towards him in case he would fall, but he didn't. His voice came out stale and horribly strained. "I killed him. I made sure he was dead."

Silence. Claire's blood turned cold, and she heard Eve's dramatic intake of air. Michael raised the question everyone wanted to know. "Who, Shane? Tell us who."

Shane didn't hesitate; his voice was cold and hard. "The man responsible for this," He held up his cell phone and from the speakers Frank Collin's voice emitted a condescending laugh.

"Hello, Claire."


	3. Chapter 3

**Again, thank so much for the positive reviews. :D **

**You guys are keeping me moving, thanks a lot.**

**

* * *

**

The room turned into statue. The house itself drafted cool air that pierced the inside of Claire's bones. The sound of Frank Collin's voice made Eve eep dramatically, and Michael gave a thoughtful "huh". Claire couldn't even begin to open her mouth. She was just frozen solid, inside and out. Shane was staring her down with the anger of a man scorn, beaten, defeated, and betrayed. It was that exact face she was hoping she'd never have to see all day long. Now, she was getting the full onslaught.

"Hello Michael, Eve." Frank continued sounding very blasé and satisfied with himself. "You didn't honestly believe I would risk my life for this traitorous town of greedy vampires, did you?"

Everyone assumed the question was rhetorical, because there had been a sense of doubt from the start. Especially with Claire. She'd noticed little signs like the static going off when Myrnin had taken advantage of her, or once while she attempted to poke around the machine a violent verge of electricity lined itself inconspicuously around the main controls. She wouldn't have known if not for the other time she'd almost gotten fried from that very same trick, and had to borrow Eve's heavy combat boots. The question wasn't rhetorical though, because Frank seemed genuinely baffled at the silence.

"No reply? I'm not in the least bit shocked that Claire is choosing to keep that mouth of hers shut for once, but you two. Where's the homecoming?"

"Shane, tell us what's going on." Michael said, his voice held a thick coating of skepticism.

"You can't tell what's going on? That bitch helped her crazy scientist bloodsucking freak put my father in a machine." Shane spat. The phone in his hand shook with all of his rage. When he called her a bitch a million knives clawed at her insides, but it was nothing compared to the feeling she got when he mentioned her crazy scientist bloodsucking freak.

The whole time she was stuck on the fact that Shane was angry towards her. She'd almost completely forgotten the part where he mentioned killing someone. It hit her just then that the person really responsible for Frank's misfortunes was Myrnin.

Myrnin.

"What did you do?" She screamed and her world spun clean off of its axis.

Shane's face transformed into an endless pit of pissed. "What did I do? What did I fucking do? What did you do?"

"Calm down, and tell me what the hell is going on." Michael broke in. Shane turned his glare towards him and shook his head in complete disgust.

"You're one of them; you're part of the problem. I'm sick of these fucking vampires, this fucking town. It ends. It ends now."

"My son," Frank said, and if Claire was right she could hear a sense of pride in his voice. It was sickening. "He's right. I'm in control of this town, and for as long as I am you'll all have your freedom back, and they are going to die."

No, Claire thought, no, no no. "Okay, this is creeping me out." Eve said, all of the spunk in her voice draining slowly. Claire had to check on Myrnin, she had to make sure that he was okay. Without thinking too much, she took off towards the wall where the portal usually opened up. Her legs almost failed her when Shane reached out to grab her arm furiously.

"So now you're just going to flee? You're just going to leave me like this, and not even defend yourself?" He actually sounded like the old Shane. His eyes were stirring with pain, and the tight grip on her arm reminded her that no, it wasn't the old Shane, and she couldn't do anything in that moment to reassure him otherwise.

"I think you have enough of a defense all on your own. I have to go help Myrnin."

"He's dead." He said matter of fact.

Claire's heart, mind, and soul ached in denial. "I don't believe you, now let me go."

Surprisingly he did, and again Claire felt the old Shane desperately trying to kick to the surface. She stood in front of the wall imagining the lab and trying to open up the portal with her mind. The image of Myrnin lying there cold and unconscious kept threatening to break her concentration.

She could hear the restlessness in Shane's movements. "Don't let her go, Dad."

"She isn't going anywhere, don't worry. You do understand that, right Claire? I control the portals, and you aren't using them anytime soon."

She could, she could do it. After all, she'd built the machine herself. She just needed to concentrate, that's all. Focus, she told herself.

"You're giving me the major creeps, Collins, and yeah, I mean both of you." Eve remarked.

"I want you two to explain yourselves before I get Amelie." Michael's voice held an authority Claire had only heard a couple of times. It was chilling.

Frank laughed. "Do you think that even she could stop me? No, the only person who could have stopped me is now dead."

He is not dead. All of her insides burned with that denial. She had to get into the lab. The wall blurred and moved soundlessly into a black and white liquidated image of the lab. She heard Shane give a frustrated growl.

"She's opening it!"

And she was, color swarmed around the portal, and she jumped in so quickly her whole stomach curled in on itself. She landed in a pile of scattered books which she realized a second late belonged to the book case. It had been knocked over and parts of the wood were scattered across the floor. Terror strangled her. Shane wasn't kidding. He'd actually killed Myrnin, had he? No.

She was about to call out his name but it died on her lips. Her complete fear was crippling her into uselessness. She couldn't even move. All she could think of was Myrnin lying somewhere with a silver stake jammed into his heart.

There was a slight buzzing of static that managed to drag her mind away from the image.

"If you're wondering where he is, check the love nest he made for you. You know? The red cottage and the, oh wait, did I say red? I meant white. Or it used to be white, at least. Ah, well." Frank said, laughing. His computerized voice removed most of his ability to sound like the sloppy tongued Frank she was used to. She was glad for that, because she could pretend he was someone else. Just pretend.

She got up and started towards the little room that had been her refuge for two nights, stomach turning. She couldn't remember Myrnin ever having a smell, but somehow her memories of him always brought back certain smells-dust, Oils from all of his strange contraptions, and the smell of a used book. She smelled each and every one of those scents in her quest to find him, and every time she became a little more ill.

The door was ajar, left open for whatever purpose. Did they want someone to find him? She guessed that they just didn't care. It's not like it really mattered, anyway. There was nothing that anyone else could do to Frank, no one but Myrnin. Oh, and her. But she kept that last part to herself, mainly because she only had a flimsy idea of how to defeat him, nothing set in stone. Still, the idea made her stronger, strong enough to open the door and wander inside.

The cottage was covered in blood. No, the whole entire room was covered in blood. It looked like a massacre, a sloppy slaughter. The blanket was thrown to the opposite of the room and took on the shape of a crumpled body. Bile rose up in her throat, she so did not want to be doing this. She had to be sure that it was Myrnin though. God, did she hope it wasn't. There was a giant hole in the wall where the body lay, and she focused on that instead. She had to gulp down a fistful of fear to even get her legs to work properly.

Her hand was shaking so badly, she was shaking so badly, that everything was doubly blurred. Do it, she pushed herself. She had to be sure, she had to. The blanket slid off of the body with the sound of a curtain being drawn, and that's when she saw him.

There wasn't enough time to start putting pieces together, either, because in the next instant a loud shriek sounded across the room. Claire turned on her feet fast, catching sight of Morganville's founder standing face to face with her, eyes like the coldest winter approaching a full blizzard. Amelie.

"What have you done?" There was true anguish in that voice. It was like a verbal slap across the face, and boy, it burned. What had she done? She hadn't done anything. Or had she? No, not telling Shane about Frank was Amelie's order directly. She wasn't responsible for how Shane would eventually react to it. It was out of her control. Everything was out of her control. Her head was throbbing so loudly she couldn't think.

"Answer me, Child" Amelie barked, grabbing Claire by her shoulders and painfully lifting her from the ground. "Why have you done this to Oliver? Why? Or does it not matter? Tell me now, so that I can choose rather to kill you now or later." Her teeth were drawn, her presence physically made Claire tired and confused. She was so tired, so confused. Why had Shane killed Oliver? Where was Myrnin? Had he killed both Myrnin, and Oliver?

She tried to find her voice. "I don't know. It was Shane."

The pressure in the room dropped dramatically and all of the hair standing up on top of Amelie's head settled down around her face like pillows of snow. She dropped Claire, and Claire fell to her knees in a pile of defeat. Tears burned her eyes, and all of the fight fled her. "Where's Myrnin..." She mumbled.

Amelie recovered Oliver and paced the short space. "Do not speak," It was strange. Amelie seemed almost desperately lost. The only thing that made sense was that she was angry. Claire had always figured there was a buried relationship between Oliver and Amelie, but nothing so extreme. It shocked her when Amelie was down and Oliver reacted like a broken man, and it shocked her no less that Amelie was acting in a similar manner.

"Yes," A new voice said. "Silence your pet." It was one of Amelie's guards, the female one, looking ready to maul Claire at the drop of a coin. As if that would ever get old.

"Hush and go stand guard outside," Amelie commanded. The vampire gave a short bow, and disappeared out of the hole in the wall. "Now Claire, I am going to ask you this as simply as possible. I suggest that you consider your choices and carefully, because there lies your life and your death. Do you understand?"

She didn't even wait for Claire's answer. She was in Claire's face in a flash, not a hair out of place. Her expression was cool and calm, but her eyes made Claire want to recoil. "Where is Shane?"

Oh no. She was not about to rat out Shane, she couldn't. Could she? She still loved him, and it would hurt her more than words to have him killed. She knew that deep down he would have to suffer for this crime. It wasn't a matter of politics. It was a matter of backstabbing. Amelie had trusted Shane, Claire, and Eve. Claire couldn't even begin to count how many times Amelie had saved their necks. Shane would have to pay for that, no matter what.

She still couldn't do it. Shane's name retreated to the back of her mind as if it no longer existed, and the name that resurfaced burned her tongue. "Where's Myrnin?"

Amelie hissed an awful sound, and her hand was coming towards Claire's face faster than she could ever process. That strong buzzing sound exploded downstairs. It made Claire jump and Amelie pause in her actions. She fled from the room at top speed, knocking things over as she went. She'd never seen Amelie so...so, not put together. Amelie came back into the room like a whirlwind and plopped Claire's cell phone down into Claire's lap.

Myrnin had fixed it? Amelie was eying it with confirmation. "This is his revenge."

"Yes it is," Frank Collin's said almost happily. "I intend for this to happen a lot more often, actually. So far, how do you like the decorations?"

Amelie growled low in her throat. "Why did you kill Oliver out of all of my people?"

"He was in the way," He said, and if he still had shoulders Claire was sure he would have shrugged just then. "He was trying to protect that useless slump Myrnin, but failed."

Failed? "Where is he," Claire shouted, slamming the phone down into the floor. Frank laughed as if he was being tickled. "You know where he is."

And she did. She found her footing and sprinted across the room. She felt Amelie behind her, silent like a ghost, but with a presence that couldn't ever be ignored. She ran towards the trapped door and yanked it open so hard her shoulder nearly popped out of place. "Myrnin!" She screamed down into the room. The jump was far, she could easily injure herself. Amelie jumped down and landed with the utmost grace and poise. Claire watched her disappear into the room and grew anxious beyond the point of logic. She decided to risk it, and jumped down with her.

Her ankle twisted, snapped, and she cried out in horrible pain. No one came rushing to her aid. It didn't even matter, she had to save Myrnin. With the rest of her strength she came up from her crawl and hobbled on one leg, testing out her foot for only a second before realizing that the pain was actually serious. She didn't expect to see what she was seeing in front of her.

Myrnin was standing perfectly still with a smile spread from cheek to cheek, eye to eye, and staring right into Amelie's eyes. "Hello," He said coolly, and made a sweeping bow. She would have been convinced that his action was normal, but he stood up too quickly. He was still smiling radiantly. Claire thought it could have been the smile he used to break hearts, time and time again, over the centuries. "Lovely Amelie."

Amelie didn't return the politeness. "Unplug the machine, Myrnin." She ordered. Her authority rang through the room and made Claire's head feel heavy once again. She had to lean against the wall not only because of her busted ankle, but because of Amelie's power to make one submit.

Myrnin laughed and threw his hands up mockingly. "Well aren't you a fright. I'm sorry, my lady, but I can not do that." The smile melted into a look of pity with a glint of amusement in his eyes. "And I'm excruciatingly sorry for having to do this."

Claire saw Myrnin reach behind him mechanically with a grimace forming on his face, and push a button. A projected image of Frank appeared behind Amelie. She turned around and a look of shock crossed her features. She'd never seen Amelie look helpless, but in that moment, she did. It made Claire turn to stone.

Frank Collin's walked right through Amelie. No, not through her, but into her. Her body convulsed oddly and alien. All of Amelie's years spent perfecting her physical grace and mannerism, gone all in a couple of very awkward twitches. Claire gasped and darted back towards the exit. Myrnin zipped out in front of her, still wearing torment. "I told you Claire. I need you." He said in the saddest voice Claire had ever heard. Her eyes widened, and then she spun around to see that Amelie had placed herself two inches away from Claire's face. An evil grin transformed her features and then it dawned on Claire that she'd never seen Amelie make such a face.

It was the face of a rebel. It was the face of someone who enjoyed violence. Amelie tried for peace, never violence. She knew who always sided with violence. It was the man who roughed up his son, who led an entire gang of vampire slayers through Morganville.

It was Frank Collin's.


	4. Chapter 4

**Ahh, I'm really getting into this story. It's starting to consume all of the free-space in my brain. **

**Expect several updates soon. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. **

* * *

"Thank you Myrnin." Amelie said with a sparkle in her deeply set alabaster eyes. It looked like a storm was brewing inside of her, and Claire guessed that there was. The storm was Frank. Myrnin didn't answer and Claire didn't bother to take her eyes off of Amelie to read his expression. She couldn't fully process what was going on. Was Amelie still Amelie, or was she Frank? Was Amelie being controlled by Frank or had Frank _become_ her? Either way, it wasn't good for Myrnin or Claire just then, or Morganville in general. Claire tried to compose herself.

"Amelie…?" She asked, straightening out her posture. She had been cowering against the wall, catering to her sprained ankle.

Amelie's head swiveled neatly down to Claire. She would have seemed almost normal if not for the hint of malice in her restless eyes. Claire gulped uncomfortably. "Yes, Claire?"

Way to go, genius. She hadn't even thought of what she was going to say next, so she blurted out the most mundane comment ever. "How are you feeling?"

Yeah, that's right. She'd asked a vampire how it was feeling. That had to be some weird symbolic sign of how things were starting to change, and drastically fast. Amelie caught a very thoughtful expression. "I feel a little odd, on edge. What happened here?" She asked, sounding disoriented while keeping her air of grace. It confirmed what Claire was thinking. Frank was too smart to try and take over Amelie entirely, it would be too obvious. He would instead make subtle alterations that could possibly destroy the balance of the town while still remaining discreet. He was way too smart because his plan could actually work, and that scared Claire more than anything she'd witnessed in the last twenty four hours.

Myrnin took a step towards Amelie. Claire could see that his profile was not in the least bit amused, and that he genuinely seemed confused. "I don't know. Perhaps you should sit. Perhaps I should sit. I have the most monstrous headache." He knocked dust off of his velvet suit jacket. He was wearing a pair of long black jeans that clung to his skin and his bunny slippers. He looked well dressed, for once.

Amelie nodded in approval and set out ahead of them both. Myrnin was about to follow when Claire grabbed his sleeve. "Did you not see what just happened?" He looked down at her hand as if it were a pesky flee.

"Unhand me, heathen. Why must you result to physical actions before verbal?"

Good question, she thought. Truthfully, she didn't know what she thought. Myrnin was acting like he'd just woken up from a nap and all was well, and he didn't even seem to remember what had gone on earlier that day. It made Claire's stomach hurt. He was about to say something else when a resounding crunch echoed across the room.

"Beakers?" Amelie asked. Myrnin rushed over to her side and examined the scattered pieces of broken glass more closely, although, it was hardly necessary. He had the eyes of a vampire, but Myrnin was all about theatrics. He stood on his very tippy toes and glared down at the mess.

"Why yes, those are my beakers. Strange, I must have misplaced them."

A weird feeling washed over Claire. It was like a startling premonition. _They didn't know._ It felt sort of like before when everyone's memory had been set back for several years, except this time they were talking only a matter of minutes. A sense of dread made her body suddenly heavy, but she knew not to say anything. Frank was in control, he could easily flip a switch that out casted her, so her best bet was to play along and think of a strategy that didn't involve putting her life on the risk.

They re-entered the lab in silence, and then Myrnin gasped wolfishly. "This chaos will not do," He was moving things around rampantly, dust billowing in harsh clouds. Claire coughed and covered her nose with her sleeve. "I do apologize, Amelie. I don't remember leaving such a mess."

Amelie stood frozen facing the room that Oliver was in. She didn't say anything; she just stood there and stared. Claire felt that she should say something but nothing good had managed to come from her mouth all day. Myrnin was still scattering about, adding more chaos to his chaos. The lab was never clean, and Claire really hadn't thought about there ever being a sense of order in the place, but apparently to Myrnin there had been. "I'm missing a dramatic amount of my supplies."

"Yes, there seems to have been a raid. I'm having the most trouble trying to remember what I am here to do in the first place." Amelie said turning towards Myrnin. "I believe I came to give you orders."

She smoothed her hands down the pure white suit she wore, and her eyes fixed on Claire. "You are now responsible for Claire and everything that she does. I would prefer that you keep her in the lab as much as possible until I can settle things amongst my people. Havoc is coming with the new balance of order, and I don't need Claire or any one of her friends in my way. Is that clear?"

"Hmm, I suppose." He threw an empty box across the room and placed his hands on his hips. "Though, I must say, I have no idea what you are talking about. It seems I have forgotten how positively mad I am." He smiled the most breathtaking smile and then went back to ripping the room in half.

Amelie didn't even blink. "I'm very sorry Claire, but this has to be done." Two of her guards appeared out of the shadows. She would never get used to seeing that, and hid the urge to yelp. "I am only preparing you for what is to come. I have decided that you must leave Morganville. You, Shane, Eve, you will all be escorted by Myrnin next week out of the town. I know how troublesome it is for you to be so far away from your ill father, so let this be a representation of my mercy."

She dipped her head and then turned to leave, her guards following her out with only a moment's hesitation from the female. She made quick eye contact with Claire that said all that Claire needed to know. She was confused, _she still remembered. _She was a missing piece in Frank's plan. He'd forgotten all about the guard who'd witnessed Oliver's crime scene, and knew that he had been eliminated.

"Wait!" Claire said, and Amelie paused to look over her shoulder.

Claire was unsure if it was her place to ask, but she had to know if what she'd heard was true. She knew that as long as it was true not a single one of them would be leaving Morganville anytime soon. "What about Michael?"

Amelie's face stayed hard and stable. "He will stay here. He's one of mine, and I must take care of my people. Again, I'm terribly sorry Claire. You will never see your friend again." And with that, she was gone—the lab door slammed shut on all of Claire's hopes. She still had to fight. She had to fight somehow, but she felt completely helpless. She knew that Myrnin would obey Amelie no matter what so she couldn't do anything. Frank was going to destroy all of the vampires, which would have seemed logical when Claire first entered Morganville, but things were different. She'd actually grown fond of some of the vampires, and knew that they too had a heart. They had to have hearts for Michael to be one.

Myrnin on the other hand was questionable on a lot of different levels. He was like a less sane version of Amelie. It was hard to tell rather they simply did things out of instincts and for their own survival, or out of the kindness of their hearts. She thought of this morning with Myrnin and how thirsty he was. He'd kissed her like someone who had been loved and loved. She knew the difference because it was how she shared kisses with Shane. There had to be something in Myrnin, no matter how much he claimed otherwise, and he couldn't die.

She turned around to see him staring at the floor with a puzzled look on his face. "Someone was here, Claire. Did you let them in? I feel awfully in the dark about something, but I can't put my finger on what it is." He walked over to the shattered book case and shook his head. "You know that I don't like people uninvited coming down here."

Claire played with her fingers nervously. She could tell Myrnin about what was really going on, well, because he was Myrnin. He was crazy and he would believe her. "You're right, someone was here." The next part made her stomach bubble nervously. "Oliver is dead. Fr-Shane killed him."

Myrnin waved a casual hand through the air. "Tell me something I don't already know. Oliver is dead. Amelie will take over the town. Your incompetent boyfriend has lost his mind, a typical day in this boring town."

Claire had to pick her jaw up off of the floor. "You know what's going on? Myrnin, look, we have to do something. She's going to kill you." Words tumbled off of her tongue faster than her mind could register. "She's going to get rid of all of the vampires because she's being controlled by—"

Myrnin's hand suddenly came hard around her face, blocking her mouth from uttering the last part of the sentence. Myrnin was standing close to her, her back pressed up against him. She could feel portions of his body that she would have never wanted to even imagine before that morning. It made her swallow back a nervous glibber. Yeah, she was being so mature.

His lips came near her ear, and she felt the warmth of his breath tickling her from the insides out. "When will you learn? There are things that should never be spoken. There are things that we have absolutely no control over." He paused to chuckle darkly. "I know that's strange coming from my lips because I can accomplish more than the average man, but in truth, child, I am only this way because I don't bother to babble on about my knowledge so that the average man would become me. Do you understand what I am trying to say?" She nodded, even though she didn't know what he was getting at.

"Good. We are not to speak of what's going on in this town, we fix it. That's all we must do." He let go of her mouth and Claire breathlessly let out a strangled cough. His hands smelled like oil. "But how are we going to do that?"

He stepped away from Claire and walked across the room to stand on top of the fallen shelf. He looked back to his normal amused self, and Claire realized for the first time that he was wearing a bow tie with polka dots on it. "First! We find out who on earth tore through my lab this way. I'm not very pleased at their attempt to remain anonymous. That raises the obvious question, was that their purpose? To remain anonymous? We shall see."

No, Claire though. He still wasn't getting it. Something wasn't connecting right in Myrnin's memory. What was he missing? "Myrnin, Shane did it, I told you. He knows about…" her voice shook. "He knows about the machine."

He waved her off again like she was being a stubborn child. "Oliver has been recovering from the silver poison he suffered, he hasn't been in my lab nor do I detect his scent anywhere but in the room he lies in now. There is a very ghastly hole right above his body, so I'm assuming he was thrown into my lab. Oh, but this is just a wild guest!" He shouted gleefully and hopped onto one of the crowded tables. He had the steps of a maniac, a very smart maniac on to something.

"No offense towards you or anything, but your puny boyfriend isn't strong enough to lift a fully grown vampire several feet off of the ground and _through_ a wall. The blood was tastelessly flung across the room very unconvincingly, etcetera, etcetera. Ultimately the mess in my lab down here has nothing to do with the mess with Oliver. You have been thrown terribly off track so that you may be confused and act out foolishly. Me myself, I quite enjoy a good mystery every now and again. This has to be the most exciting one yet."

Well, crap. Claire needed to sit down. Was she that off kilter? Right when she thought that she'd be onto something she had it wiped right from underneath her. Who was responsible for killing Oliver? She was positive it was Frank, but if Shane didn't do it himself, did that mean Frank had possessed him just as he was possessing Amelie? What about Myrnin? What about their kiss, and him pushing that button? Oh man, she felt sick.

"What are you trying to say?" She asked, suddenly teetering to her left. That was strange, she felt like her leg was about to give out on her. Right, she'd pretty much twisted the crap out of her ankle. She'd forgotten. Myrnin noticed just as she noticed and in a short amount of seconds he was lifting her from the ground and spinning her through the air. Claire screamed rather girlishly and felt her head spin.

She landed on one of the tables and Myrnin dashed off in search of something. Claire bit her lip trying to still the world. Once the thought had entered her mind, it had become harder and harder to repress. It was sort of juvenile. Morganville as she knew it was under the control of the most determined man she'd ever known, and she wasn't sure if she'd ever see one of her best friends again. But she also felt…well, gross. It was bad enough that she thought from the very beginning that Myrnin had taken advantage of her, but what if he had taken advantage of her with Frank controlling him? What did that say about their little kiss?

It made her insides squirm and she felt the words surfacing on her lips. She was definitely going to regret this.

"Um, Myrnin?" Her voice sounded smaller than usual. Myrnin picked up weaknesses like a hawk and immediately returned to her side with an arm full of gauze and surgical tape. "You know," He said, ignoring her. "I have received several PHD's over the centuries. It was not because I wanted to know how to help people, but so that I could learn how to dissect my food with precision." He held up a pair of scissor and smiled wickedly as he cut into the gauze.

Alright, so this would be harder than she thought. Still, she pressed on. "I need to know why you did what you did this morning."

"Hmm?" he said, busy measuring the gauze around her swollen ankle.

Something was pounding in her head, heart, her whole body was pulsing. She felt so embarrassed, but she had to know in order to make herself feel a little more grounded in all of the chaos she was already in.

"When we kissed," As soon as it fled her lips she regretted it. Why Myrnin of all people? He wouldn't sympathize with her at all. Even if he had kissed her without the control of Shane's father crippling him, he would never admit to it. She guessed that she deserved it.

Myrnin didn't pause in his actions. He placed both of his cold hands around her ankle and looked up at her with eyes full of mischief behind dark full locks of hair. "There are things that should never be spoken. There are things we have absolutely no control over."

He went back to work, the force of his hands clamping around her ankle becoming stronger.

"This will only hurt for a few moments." He said, and then Claire screamed.


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm kind of starting to feel like "Stolen Bliss" is the wrong thing to call this one.**

**What do you guys think?

* * *

**

The mental energy it took for Claire's mind to process so much pain caused her to black out. She woke up feeling stiff, tried, and slightly confused. She was in Myrnin's cottage. At first she had to fight down a building terror that she was lying in blood, but then she caught the scent of fresh lavender. Myrnin knew how to wash things? Most of his clothes looked like they'd been in a pile of dust for centuries, so the thought made her stay in bed and wonder for far too long.

She stretched, felt the numbing pain in her ankle, and decided that she would stay in bed for a while. I mean, what was the rush anyway? There was nothing but pain out there, nothing but doom. Claire wasn't the type to give up, but she'd never been so lost on what to do in her life. She knew that she had to shut down the machine somehow, but there was something Myrnin wasn't telling her. Or, it could be that he didn't remember at all. She knew that he'd turned into some weird 18th century detective within the flash of an eye, and that he wasn't taking things nearly as serious as she was.

He was going to get her out of the town, she thought suddenly. He didn't want her to fight this battle. It made sense. In a way, Myrnin had always bothered to look after Claire. Her very presence seemed to torment him more and more each day, but especially lately. What had he said? That she was tasteful? Claire shuddered and tried not to bite into her fist. So Myrnin was a problem. He wasn't leaving anything up for discussion anymore, and that's what they needed to do. They needed to discuss how they were going to shut Frank down, and fast.

There was a quick knock on the door and then Myrnin swarmed in with a bunch of clinking and clattering. Claire sat up and rubbed at her eyes. He was standing there with a tray of food—eggs, toast, bacon, a sloppy plump of grits, and some orange juice.

"Good morning, do you like what I've done with the place?"

Claire got a good look around the room and developed a serious sense of the creeps. It was spotless, no Oliver, no more blood. It didn't change the fact that all of those things once were there, and it made her ill. "Yeah, sure, I need to get out of this room."

The sprain around her ankle was thick so she couldn't feel most of the pressure she put on that ankle as she started to get up. She froze. Cold air touched her bare legs and the silky chiffon tank she'd thrown on was all that separated her from giving away all of her undergarments. Myrnin had undressed her? Oh boy.

"Myrnin!" She threw the blankets around her shoulders and eyed him down behind a terrible mess of bed head that even Shane couldn't top. "What did you do with my clothes?"

He put the tray of food down on the cottage and snatched up a piece of toast which he used as a pointer. "You mean those ratty old things? I didn't think you would be comfortable enough sleeping in them, so I removed them. It makes perfect sense to me. Now, please sit and eat your breakfast. You're making me anxious." Her clothes were in a crumpled pile in the corner of the room.

She was making him anxious? She could feel the blush spreading across her cheeks, but decided not to push Myrnin into anything else. Besides, she wasn't sure if she'd get the chance to speak with him casually for a long time. She decided to mention Frank.

"How are we going to stop him," She asked, grabbing the glass of orange juice and gulping down a few mouthfuls. She was actually incredibly thirsty for some reason. Myrnin noticed and made a face that singled her out as the crazy person for once. She grinned, and thought that if he were Shane she would have threw him a mock punch but he wasn't Shane, and that hurt. She got back to business.

"I know you said we aren't going to talk about it we're just going to fix it, but how? Why can't we just…turn it off?"

He shook his head, crumbs from the toast he was crunching on flying through the air. "It is potentially dangerous to have the town unarmed at a time like this. Overnight he could have already built an entire army planning to flee Morganville as fast as possible. He will shatter our defense and allow them to leave with all of their memories intact, so we need to reverse that as soon as possible."

He was right. "Does that mean I have to rebuild the machine?"

"Precisely," He confirmed. "Unfortunately, in a couple of days I will have to escort you and your friends from Morganville, but I am not sure if I will actually be spared into living that long." He sounded somber for a moment but quickly recovered. "Did I ever tell you what Amelie asked of me yesterday morning?"

Claire was choking down eggs and grits so she shook her head instead of opening up her mouth. His eyebrows furrowed and then he let out an audibly dramatic sigh.

"She told me that she needed the portals to be shut down immediately. Apparently she had reason to believe that someone else was beginning to control them-that someone else was making portals that lead outside of Morganville."

Huh? Claire swallowed down two tons of bacon roughly. "Is that even possible?"

"Oh please, Claire, anything is possible. Anyway, she told me to make sure that I hid all that was valuable to Morganville in case someone was poking around things. I thought she'd gone absolutely mad because I end up figuring out every soul that has ever stepped foot in this place, and I was sure that no one had even attempted to do so."

He stood, knocking crumbs off of his long green sweater. "I am starting to think that maybe she was onto something, because for an unclear moment after she'd given her orders my mind set off like a beacon of misinformation. It's hard to explain, but I wasn't right afterward as if something was trying to keep me away from an important task. I have to say that it was unsettling. I push things into the depth of my mind for a reason." He was peering down at her with an intense look in his eyes, and she knew that he was thinking of the morning they'd…made out? It didn't sound right in her head at all. She supposed that it was worse for Myrnin, and cleared her throat to change the subject.

"But why would someone rebuild another portal machine for Frank when he could do it himself?" It was a forward statement, and at any moment Frank could come bursting into the room with a list of falsely accused crimes for both Myrnin and Claire that they would have to pay for no matter what. It had to be said though.

"I don't believe that he fancy's the fact that we can control the portals as well on a physical scale. You see, all we would have to do is turn a button, flip a switch and end all of his operations unfinished." Myrnin looked a little tired. There were dark circles under his eyes that could have been craters for the moon. She knew that he'd stayed up all night probably running ideas through his head on what to do. She was grateful for that.

"The question is who? Who would be smart enough to rebuild my genius besides you?" His troubled eyes stayed fixed on her, and Claire realized he was looking to her for answers. How was she supposed to know? Well, she hadn't really thought about it. She did take classes with people who could possibly have done it, but she didn't know any of them personally enough to make such a judgment. She was about to shake her head and give up when the name Theodore shot into her mind like something scolding hot.

"There is this new kid. I've never seen him before."

"Go on," Myrnin ushered with an impatient wave of his hand.

"That's it. All I know is his name and that for whatever reason Monica Morrell thinks that we're twins…_oh_" Yeah, oh. As if that wasn't a red flag.  
"Then that settles it! Today your job is to return safely from class and get as much information as possible from Monica."

He walked briskly towards the door with his head held high and his chest puffed out. "My job will be to stay here and dismantle the portals. I have to say that your job seems far more tedious than mine. You must remember that at all times there are eyes and ears to inspect your every move, so please manage to control yourself for this one day."

He was leaving the room when she remembered something important. It was worrying her more than she could admit to herself. "Myrnin, you aren't going to let us leave Morganville, are you?"

His shoulders turned rigid and he paused for a moment. "Claire, you must realize that this isn't your battle to fight. If we can settle the issue before it's too late, then you can stay, although I can't imagine why you would want to do that. But if not, I'm very sorry Claire."

She could tell that he really was sorry and honestly? She was sorry too, because he was right. They only had a limited amount of time before Frank's little plan went into complete action and everything fell into shambles around them. Myrnin was thinking right, for once. He was trying to protect her. That made her both ache and burn with something she hardly knew existed.

"Thank you," She said, but he didn't bother to say anything after that and exited the room.

Claire found that there was a fresh pair of clothing at the edge of her bed. She was glad that Myrnin hadn't picked her something similar to his style because then she might be tempted to stay in bed all day after all. It was still chilly outside and fall leaves blew up and around Claire as she headed towards Common Grounds. She wondered if anyone had noticed Oliver's absence or if Amelie had even figured out that he was dead. Now that she thought about it, it made perfect sense for Frank to have eliminated Oliver first. He would be in the way the most, right? He would be the one to challenge Amelie and possibly win; no one else stood a chance of defying her authority.

On the way to Common Grounds Claire had been filled with the urge to visit the Glass House. She felt sort of homesick and desperately wanted to see Shane. She wanted to see him…sane. She was holding on to the idea that maybe he was being controlled by Frank that night, and that he didn't really hate her like his eyes portrayed. She hoped not, at least. He might have every reason to hate her after she'd kept so much from him, but she was under orders and it could have possibly risked his life all together. Claire's conscience loved to kick her around.

Common Ground's was fairly busy even for a Tuesday morning. Every chair was occupied and some people were sitting in groups on the floor. Claire had to messily step over them to get to the counter. Claire's heart raced when she caught sight of Eve looking disheveled and rushed scooping up coffee beans and loading it into one of the sleek black industrial machines. She muttered something at it and gave it a hard slap before walking back to the counter. She didn't even seem to notice Claire.

"What do you want? Let me get this to you right now, everything is black today. I'm not in the mood." She was tying up her apron and looked up with the most annoyed expression. It melted away once she saw Claire. "Oh my god," She gasped, and then shook her head in disbelief. She was coming around the counter, so Claire put down her bag and walked over to meet her. Eve still managed to look woefully fashionable even in uniform. It brought a piece of home to Claire, and she couldn't help but smile.

They hugged briefly and then Eve was leading her behind the counter. They passed up a few hissing machines and then crammed into a closet full of Styrofoam cups wrapped in plastic. It smelled like an old mop and something oddly chemical. Eve looked anxious and hyper at the same time. "Sorry, but I didn't want Oliver busting in on us talking town gossip," At the mentioning of Oliver's name Claire instantly went still. Eve held her tongue on a vowel and made a suspicious face. "Wait, what's that look for?" She said, yanking Claire farther into the tiny closet. Claire felt sick.

"Oliver is…dead. I think Shane killed him."

Eve's eyes widened. The effect was more dramatic due to her excessive amount of eyeliner. "Why would he do something like that? We've all been worried like hell about you and Shane. Things are getting weird again." There was real fear in her eyes that made Claire want to look away.

"How is Shane?"

Eve looked nervous. "After the night you disappeared, he stuck around to tell Michael a thing or two that made me want to kick him where it hurts, and then he left saying how there was going to be a 'revolution' or something like that. It didn't even sound like Shane. The boy has finally lost his mind."

So that confirmed it. Shane would never use a word like "revolution", it had to be Frank. The realization made Claire's scalp tingle. Frank really was in control of everything and everyone. He could actually pull it off. He was going to destroy Morganville. She didn't feel like it would be a good idea to tell Eve any of that, so she opted for being silent on the subject of Shane for the remaining time.

"Amelie's got me under Myrnin's control again, so I can't really see you guys. I have to build a new machine."

Claire caught the flash of anger in Eve's eyes. "There are so many things I want to say to that woman sometimes that would get me killed for sure, I swear. Are they at least letting you sleep this time?"  
Claire nodded and bit into her lip. She didn't like how invested Eve seemed into Morganville's gossip just then. This was more than gossip; this was a matter of life and death. The more Eve knew the closer she would be to dying. Claire didn't doubt that Frank would eliminate anyone, human or vampire, that got in his way. If Eve started trying to fight against him she would end up killed. Still, it made a fire burn inside of Claire too. She could see that Eve really did care for her, and the bond in their friendship made Claire stronger in times like these. She suddenly could see herself in Myrnin's position. If she got a chance to get Eve, Shane, and Michael out of Morganville one day she would do it in a heartbeat, even at the expense of her own life.

"So, what? Frank is in the machine and since he's gone just about as bat shit crazy as Shane you guys have to debug his bastard ass? I'm so in. What can I do?"

Eve was getting excited. Claire hated to burst her bubble. "Nothing. The same rules apply as before, except I get a little more freedom. I'm not supposed to be talking to you right now, and she isn't keeping me from school but I have to work on my own. I have until next week."

Some of the fire died a little, but it was still there. "So until Sunday? I guess I can give Snow white a break for once, she isn't being a total bitch this time." She grinned at Claire and Claire tried her best to grin back without her lip quivering. At one point in her life she'd thought that she was good at the whole lying thing, but it seemed like each day in Morganville broke that part of her down. Damn.

"Oh, and just to set the record. I think Frank being in the machine is totally sick. I understand why you wouldn't tell Shane but you probably should've told one of us, jeez. "

Claire tried not to get offended. "What was I supposed to say? My lunatic boss has my boyfriend's dad's brain in a jar, okay thanks for your time? I was still coming to terms with accepting it myself, how would I expect any of you to?"

Eve shrugged. "I guess you're right. I would've sent you to the loony bin. Now I'm just seriously happy that you're okay." She grabbed Claire up into a hug that brought Claire face to face with more cups and a sign that said "NO STEALING" in bright red letters. She didn't take Oliver for the type to care about someone stealing Styrofoam cups, but he held an endless list of surprises just like the rest of Morganville. She was sad that he was gone, and that for all she knew, Morganville could be too.


	6. Chapter 6

Claire was glad that Eve gave her space for the rest of her visit. She'd actually come to Common Grounds for only one reason: Monica Morrell. She found her sitting in a window seat with a book of all things. The sight was odd enough, and to add more juice to it she was pointing things out of the book in a fierce manner with her head pressed tightly to Theodore. He flinched as she stabbed at one of the pages. Claire's heart was pounding through her ears. She couldn't approach them without missing something vital, so instead she wiggled into a cramped spot by a rack of magazines. She grabbed one spilling gossip about celebrities, who Claire thought only had enough talent for a YouTube partnership. Claire could just barely hear Monica's voice over the humming of other students.

"What part of it don't you get? Seriously, you're supposed to be smart I can't teach you myself." She sounded annoyed and rash, whereas Theodore's voice came out a lot more timidly. "I have it. I just don't understand what part you're talking about now. You can't rush things like this they—they take time."

"Yeah but how much time do we really have, freak? None at all! If I'm going to get what I deserve, for once, you need to unstupify yourself _faster_."

Claire could almost see Theodore flinching, he did that a lot. "If you could just give me more of her notes, I could do it. We were successful once but…"

"Yeah, you murdered a cat." Monica cut in. Theodore was silent for a few seconds before he found his voice again. "Yes, I guess I did. I feel like I have the wrong notes, that's all. Maybe these are old?"

"They aren't old! We tore that hell hole apart. Look at me."

Claire couldn't believe what she was hearing, and tried to squirm a little from behind the rack of magazines so that she could get a better look at the two. Behind a sheet of her hair she could make out Monica whispering something into Theodore's ear. She was running a nail down the back of his neck, and he gave a violent shudder.

Claire heard him mumble. "Yes," and saw his fingers grip the edges of the book like it was about to run away. Monica pulled back smiling and licked her lips. "We'll be immortal _and_ free. Don't fail me now."

Immortal and free? What was Monica doing, exactly? Claire's heart was beating wildly. This had a lot more to do with the portals than she'd thought. Could he really pull it off? Well, he had her notes. She hadn't made any new ones; the idea had struck her going on fifty hours without rest, so the thought of writing all of the corrections she'd needed down didn't really cross her mind. Did that mean he wouldn't be able to complete it? She was very doubtful, but the thought made her nervous either way. She didn't like all of the determination she heard in Monica's voice. What did she mean by immortal? It seemed like she had made a deal with the devil, or in this case, a vampire. What vampire would promise her immortality though? What vampire _could_ do that in the first place?

Amelie

So did that mean Frank had been conning with Monica for all of this time? Honestly, Claire's head wasn't right for this kind of work. She just wanted to punch Frank in the face, to slap some sense into him. He wasn't helping humans; he was going to destroy them. Did he really think that vampires would back down so easily? This could actually be the beginning of a war none of them were prepared to fight.

And now Monica of all people was right in the middle of it. Her and Theodore dipped into a conversation too low for Claire to hear. She felt time slipping away. She couldn't up and leave and risk any one of them spotting her. Frank wouldn't take that lightly at all. She was already hoping he didn't have some sort of surveillance going on. Myrnin had come to the conclusion that for the next few days Frank would be too busy reining as Amelie to focus on what she was doing. He'd left her in the hands of Myrnin, and for all that he knew Myrnin was just as oblivious as the rest of the town.

The day seemed a lot more dragged out than usual and it was gradually growing colder and colder in Morganville. Claire was happy to be back in the lab after her long walk, but she wasn't happy with what she saw. The entire machine she'd built had been ripped apart. Some pieces were thrown into the trash, and others were simply in tiny piles of ash in the middle of the floor. Anger flared through her. By "dismantle the machine" did he mean destroy it? That was so not cool. She threw her backpack across the room until it slammed into one of Myrnin's favorite places to cram things. She half expected him to come running in with a pot and a pan humming to his own super hero mantra with the way he'd been acting lately. It was normal, she guessed. After having lived for so many hundreds of years without much excitement since the civil war you clung to just about anything.

Since he didn't come storming out, however, throwing things suddenly seemed a little juvenile, so she retrieved her backpack and then went in search of him, growing eerily aware of how quiet it was. After rattling around the whole place and coming up empty, restlessness began to build in her stomach, so she went to work on figuring out how to build a new machine. Somehow it all made her feel better. Working towards something rather than sitting around and worrying over it for hours on end gave her a sense of accomplishment. She followed the basic steps that she had before but worked around the whole use of anyone's DNA deal. Hours passed without a peep from Myrnin. Her eyes felt heavy and her ankle was starting to throb when the door flung open nosily and the sound of someone descending the stairs echoed across the room. Something inside of Claire told her to hide, so she ducked underneath one of the tables. She was doing a bunch of hiding today, she thought.

Midnight dark black boots stomped across the room and stopped near the portal portion of the machine. The boots were squeaky clean. In fact, they didn't even look worn at all. It was strange that of all things that was all Claire could really focus on. It made her feel like there was a pair of eyes throwing needles at her back. She could almost immediately tell that it was a vampire just by their deliberate movements. The vampire acted like a solider under an order and all of that spelled trouble for Claire.

The vampire began to lift up the torn apart machine. Bits and screws fell from it and the vampire cursed underneath his breath. One of the screws rolled under the table near Claire.

Well, crap. She had two options. She could either jump out and catch the vampire off guard, or she could wait for him to possibly find her. She didn't like that last one. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as an aid and she readied herself to spring.

The vampire suddenly turned sharply towards the door and placed the machine back down on the table. Claire could see his leg muscles tensing and then the lab door swung open once more. Papers flew as a strong gust of wind assaulted the room carrying Myrnin's theatrical laugh. "I don't believe that belongs to you," He said in that silky tone of his. The vampire visibly tried to control itself. "Amelie's orders, It belongs to her."

Claire was starting to sweat out of nervousness, and also because it was becoming really hard to breathe down there. Myrnin's shoes came into view. He was wearing actual shoes for once, but his were a much more tattered version of the other vampire's boots. They looked incredibly out of place. "I can't allow you to take that while it's incomplete. There would be no use for it then and surely Amelie is not so impetuously inept." Myrnin was using his innocent voice, but Claire knew it was to no avail. Most vampires in Morganville followed Amelie's orders no matter who came at their expense. He wouldn't kill Myrnin but he would fight him to get the task done. Great, Claire was going to have to do something stupid today. She'd almost gone the whole day without messing anything up. If the other vampire tried to take on Myrnin she could already see herself lunging out to help. Oh well, one little mess up wouldn't hurt. I mean come on; she'd been good all day.

The other vampire's voice was deep and husky. It was an unfamiliar voice she couldn't really place. "I do not question Amelie's orders and neither should you. " The vampire was turning back towards the machine and Claire saw Myrnin take a wandering step closer.

"Not even when logic can be questioned as well?"

The vampire stopped and his whole entire body went frigid. Myrnin was starting to push buttons. "I must say that I agree with you. If Amelie had given me orders I wouldn't have questioned them either, but then again, there wasn't another party to have me question it in the first place."

If she could see into the other vampire's mind she would probably see him indentifying Myrnin as the town crazy like everyone else did, and therefore his opinions were pushed aside most of the time.

"I'm going to need you to step away. If you aren't going to help me you should move out of my way. If you don't want to move out of my way, I will have to remove you."

Myrnin chuckled and then let it out in a squeal. "Remove me? That is not a very respectful thing to say to me in my own Lab, boy. Do you have any idea who you are speaking to?" His voice had turned into tiny droplets of ice struggling not to fall and break open into a million shards of glass. She really didn't like the direction of things. Was there even anything underneath there she could use to stake the guy?

Her eyes scanned the darkness. There was a bunch of boxes, a ton of dust, some lint balls floating around, and a wire that snaked off somewhere else.

"It doesn't matter who I'm speaking to. You aren't the one who I answer to."

"Oh, but I am the most frightening. You have _no_ idea what crosses my mind on a daily basis. Just in this short time I have thought of several ways to make your two hundred years on this earth nothing but a shadow."

Jeez, when did Myrnin become such a bad ass? Meanwhile, Claire was having a little trouble breathing. The dust had become too much, so she held a hand over her mouth and nose breathing in the limited amount of air from her sweaty palms. She was actually starting to feel light headed.

"I don't want this to end in a fight but I will," The vampire turned his back on Myrnin. "Get out of my way." And with that, he lifted up the machine once more. Myrnin's pale white flesh shot across the room, slamming the machine back down onto the table. The vampire hissed and in a blur swiped for Myrnin's neck. Myrnin was quicker and dodged his blow as gracefully as a ballerina. He leaned against the table and picked at his finger nail. "Do you really want to do this, boy?" Claire could almost hear the smile in his voice. Oh but the dust, it was everywhere, and she couldn't breathe. Her throat itched and her nose was beginning to tickle from the inside.

She clamped both hands around her face like a muzzle and closed her eyes awaiting her hopefully silent sneeze. Except that it wasn't silent a_t all_. It was like a giant explosion through her fingers with an aftershock that made her head fly back into one of the bony table legs. "Ouch!" She cursed and then realized what she'd just done. She didn't have enough time to inspect the other vampire's reaction, because in only a few short seconds there was a loud booming crash that sounded from across the room. She looked out to see that both Myrnin and the other vampire had disappeared, but she could hear their scuffle bouncing off the walls.

Okay, so she was going to do two stupid things today. She crawled from underneath the table and actually gasped in the fresh air. A quick survey of her surrounding space clarified the sinking feeling in her stomach that she hadn't been smart enough to leave her backpack within easier reach. It was lying near the stairs only a few feet away, but a few feet could mean life or death.

Myrnin suddenly went flying across the room. He landed into the wall where the book case used to stand, and bounced right back up like he was simply enjoying a breezy afternoon on a trampoline. He frowned flabbergasted at Claire. "What on earth are you doing?" He said right before the other vampire strolled into the room with eyes that were glowing red. He took sight of Claire and in almost an instant was standing in front of her with a twisted grin on his face.

Claire screamed and ducked, which was a really good reflex on her part because Myrnin decided to attack the vampire from behind. The vampire elbowed Myrnin in the face. It made his head jerk awkwardly and he tried to shake it off but failed. He had that fair away look in his eyes like he was seeing stars. He still kept his grip around the other vampire's neck tight, but the other vampire took advantage of Myrnin's clumsiness and used both of his hands and the tip of his toes to launch both him and Myrnin six feet into the air. Myrnin slammed into the ceiling with a loud crunch. Claire felt a scream bubbling up inside of her throat. He seemed to fall back down in slow motion. She honestly couldn't believe what she was seeing.

It was pauses like that, that got people killed. She snapped out of it and ran towards her backpack. The vampire got there before her. His fingers closed around her throat blocking her air supply. Now, how many times had she been in this position? She was getting a little better at it, because her vision didn't start to slip away as quickly as it had done in the past. He threw her across the room and her head slammed into something rock hard. She tasted blood on her tongue and tried not to cough up a lung as she tried to suck in as much oxygen as she could.  
The vampire hovered over her, grabbing her up by her shirt. He held her up in mid air, fangs extending. His eyes shined with that terrifying red rage that stirred in all vampires. Her body was just shutting down altogether. She didn't even have any energy to scream anymore. Her throat was raw and colors swarmed her vision. She tried to blink them away but even her blinks were too slow. It happened like one of those projected slideshows. First his fangs were extending,

and then he was extending towards her neck.


	7. Chapter 7

_No__, _she tried to say, but it wasn't coming off of her tongue properly. Something growled to Claire's left. She might have heard that growl before.

Myrnin was like a bullet. He came crashing into the other vampire like something straight out of the sky. Claire dropped to the ground on her knees and tried not to bite her entire tongue off. Man, she was going to pay for that one.

"How dare you. How _dare _you." Myrnin howled. She'd only ever heard his voice go up that high a couple of times. It was then she realized that Myrnin could actually make a good leader. He had the same type of energy that Amelie possessed when he really dared to use it. The pressure in the room began to build and she watched the vampire flinching back into his skin. Myrnin was holding the vampire up in the air by his neck somewhat like he'd done Claire. She could see Myrnin's hands constricting around the vampire's throat. The redness died in them and actual fear replaced it.

Myrnin was going to kill him. She couldn't allow that. She knew that Myrnin would regret it if he actually accomplished it. Myrnin's voice evened out and she could tell that he wasn't smiling at all. "She belongs to me." Claire didn't want to imagine the look on Myrnin's face just then. She knew that if she did it would burn itself into her brain for a lot longer than she wanted. But she had to do something.

Her knees wobbled beneath her as she stood and weakly called out "Myrnin, don't."

He tilted his head back over his shoulders, turning his head and shoulders just enough so that Claire could catch a view of his profile…and the creepiest smile spreading across his face. Compared to the other vampire's red glowing eyes, Myrnin's were like giant rays that made fear course through Claire's veins. Was he past the point of reasoning? She didn't care, she took a step closer. "Please don't Myrnin. You don't want to do this."

"Oh, but I do Claire." His attention turned back towards the helpless looking vampire. "What else shall we do with him?"

Claire swallowed down her nerves. She racked her brain for answers. She knew that Myrnin would listen to her if she could come up with a valid argument, but what? Why shouldn't Myrnin kill the imposter? Everything in Claire said because it was wrong, because no one deserved to die by someone else's hands. When Myrnin got in these moods his conscience might as well have gone on vacation. He wouldn't listen to that, and Claire knew it. She just had to take a chance and blurt out the first thing that came to her brain.

"W-we can stake him, and then tie him up. He could give us some answers." Something flashed in Myrnin's eyes. Yes, she was on the right track. "Think about it," She inched closer. "He has to return back to Amelie or she'll be onto us. Why don't we try to convert him? It could work, and then he could be our spy."

She could tell that Myrnin was taking onto the idea, because she was too. "Very well," He shrugged, ripping open her backpack with his teeth and drawing the stake too fast for Claire to figure out if he'd actually moved at all. The stake went soundlessly into the vampire who gave a small twitch and then fell to the ground with a loud thud. Myrnin's nostrils flared and he made a disgusted face.

Claire could actually breathe. All of the tension in her body started the slow process of melting its way out. Myrnin was beginning to complain about something by the looks of his eyebrows, but he stopped cold as soon as he turned his full attention on Claire. She looked back at him confused, and slightly woozy. Her tongue felt thick and sort of useless. You'd think she would have gotten used to being in altercations like that. It wasn't anything new, but facing death over and over just wasn't something her body could ever adapt to.

All of the expressions on Myrnin's face wiped clean away. He was eying her so intently Claire had to check and make sure that she wasn't naked. "What?" She asked meekly. Really, why was he staring at her like she was…like she was a piece of meat? _Oh._ Claire could still taste all of the copper on her tongue. She squeezed her tongue against the roof of her mouth and tried to swallow down most of it. It immediately began to pour into her mouth like a fountain and Claire started to panic. How hard had she bitten it? And oh god, why was he still staring at her like that? She decided it would be in her best interests to play it cool.

"Huh, yeah, I bit my tongue. That's weird?" Her laugh came out a little too shaky. Myrnin moved towards her like a statue coming back to life. Everything in Claire told her to run, but she knew that it wouldn't do her any good. He would just chase her, and there was no coming back from that. She stood very still wishing herself invisible. He didn't stop a foot from Claire—he didn't even stop an inch from Claire. His body was literally pressed up against hers as if he was trying to force her to take a step back. She wouldn't, she had to stand her ground. Besides, she was only a little bit terrified.

They stood like that for what seemed like forever. Myrnin was looking into her eyes like a hawk sweeping down on its prey. She couldn't help looking back into his eyes like a prey either, because truly she was. Her heart was beating out of her chest so loudly that she could hear it all around her. She knew that Myrnin had to too, and that it was probably only egging him on.

His hands came up around her face and he dragged her to him. There wasn't much space left for them to close in on, and Claire's frantic breathing was all that made up that short space. This kiss was a little different from their last kiss. For one, this time Myrnin's tongue immediately went into her mouth. She knew that he was after her blood, but kissed him back anyway. She couldn't help it. It was like feeding fire.

He let go of her face to grab one of her thighs which he wrapped around his waist. Claire was a lot shorter than him so in order to bring them at a more even level she had to become air born again. Without putting much thought into it, Claire's hands were grabbing and pulling at Myrnin's hands so that she could hoist herself up a bit further. Myrnin's hands were hungrier than his tongue was. He was gripping onto all kinds of fabrics, stopping himself just barely from tearing them off of her body completely. He started that low growl in the back of his throat again that sent electricity through Claire's body. She pulled away from his lips to take in a gasping breath for air. Some of her blood lingered on Myrnin's teeth as he flashed them at her. A current of fear spiked Claire's veins and made her knees weak. He knocked the portal machine clean off of the table and threw Claire onto her back.

Her head was spinning. She wasn't thinking of anything but how every single part of her ached to be touched. She felt his hands grabbing at her thighs again, his thumbs daring the inside of her thighs. She had to close her eyes. His lips were at her neck and Myrnin seemed to be breathing her in. She was on the verge of being irrational, because god, she could feel him everywhere. She could feel the hardness in his jeans pressing up against her and the urgency in his fingers.

She wanted it, and she almost didn't care if he decided to bite her.

Almost

"Myrnin," She whispered breathlessly. His lips paused and he drew away from her neck. He was looking down at her with red glowing eyes that she watched die slowly. He was regaining his composure, his bloodlust leaking out slowly in short frizzy fumes. It looked painful, so Claire put a hand to his cheek. He gave her a slight smile, but his heart was hardly in it.

"I don't know what you've done to me." He said. He sounded like a man accepting a horrible fate; one Claire had to ponder over. She didn't like seeing him like that, but she was starting to feel it too. It was like a dawning of hopelessness settling over them.

What they did was wrong.

It was wrong the first time, now it had gone too far. And guess which part sucked the most? Claire was so very sad that it was wrong, and that he could never touch her like that again.


End file.
